Brick-mold



(NoModeL) S. W. UNDERHILL.

BRIOK MOLD.

No. 350,960. Patented Oct. 19, 1886.

j F vi W ATTORNEY h raphnr. Washington, a. c.

.UNITED STATES PATENT Prion.

STEPHEN \V. UNDERHILL, OF OROTON POINT, NEW YORK.'

BRICK-MOLD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 350,960, dated October 19,1886.

Application filed September 2, 1885.

T0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, STEPHEN W. UNDER- HILL, a citizen of the United States of North America, and a resident of Croton Point, connty of XVestchester, State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Brick-Molds, of which the following is aspecificati on.

This invention relates to brick-molds that are designed for molding ordinary square bricks.

All wooden hand briclemolds with backs or bottoms in use have one or more vents in or near the bottom for ingress of air, to permit the green brick to slip easily from the mold, said vent or vents always being wide enough to freely admit aportion of the clayintroduced into the mold. Therefore, in molding a brick in any hand-mold of this style, a portion ofthe clay which is pressed or thrown into the mold enters these vents, and when the green brick is turned out of the mold some of the clay breaks off with the brick out of the vents and remains thereon as teats orprojections,and some slips partially out from the vents and forms what are called combings, which remain in and along the lower edges or bottom of the mold to indent and otherwise deface the next brick which is molded; hence it is impossible with the ordinary mold to make a brick with smooth, straight corners.

It has always been assumed by brick manufacturers that a hand brick-mold required large vents for sufficiently free admission of air, and that the vents should be large also, so that they would not close or become too narrow when the wood of the mold became swollen with water.

The object of this invention is to construct a wooden hand brick-mold with a fixed bottom or back, and with narrow or capillary vents that shall not be affected by the expansion or contraction of the mold, which mold will readily turn out green bricks with smooth, sharp edges, without teats or impressions of combings.

The invention consists of a brick-mold constructed with the vents of such narrowness as to constitute, in effect, capillary openings openings of a width, say, not exceeding onesixteenth of an inch, and from that down to one-hundredth of an inch, or less,

into which l l I l Serial No. 175,979. (X0 model.)

the clay will not penetrate in the hand molding process; and, further, in constructing the mold so that theswelling will not affect the said vents.

From careful experiments and practical working 011 a. large scale I have determined that the green brick will readily slip from the mold when the vents are not wider than the thickness of common tin-plate, and that the clay, when thrown into the mold, will not, under the pressure or impulse given to it, enter any vent smaller than onesixtcenth of an inch. These conditions refer to the use of clay of the ordinary temper and consistency and to the use of sanded molds.

The sand thrown into the mold before molding serves in some measure to bar the passage of the clay into thenarrow vents, and yet permits the ingress of sufficient air for causing the ready slipping of the green brick.

Figure l is a sectional side elevation of my improved brick-mold. Fig. 2 is an enlarged end elevation of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

In the drawings is shown an im proved brirkmold adapted formolding fourbricksatatime.

A A represent the sides of the mold; B B, the back or bottom, pieces; 0 C, the ends; D D, the division-boards, and E E the handles. Each side, end, back, and division-board is made with straight parallel sides and edges. The two sides A A. are of equal width, and the end and division boards 0 D are narrower than the sides by, say, from one-sixteenth to one-hundredth of an inch, or less, or the desired width of a capillary vent, a,- and said end and division boards are fixed in place flush with the upper edges of the sides, so that their lower edges come short of the lower edges of the sides by the width of the vent. The backs or bottoms B B are secured on thelower edges of the sides A A, slightly overlapping the end and division boards, as shown, thereby leaving horizontal vents a a, which, from their narrowness and functions, may be called capillary vents between thelowercdges of the ends and divisions O D and the inner faces of the said backs B B. If awooden hand brickmold with capillary vents were put together in the ordinary manner, the vents would become closed when the mold was in use by the or shrinking thereof 55 spaces under the division and end pieces, while flush with the side pieces at the top, in combination with a fixed back piece under. eaclr,

division of the mold, each 'back piece extendr 5 ing partly under an end and division piece or two division-pieces, whereby the immediate entrances of the vents to the molds are in a' horizontal and not in avertical direction substantially as shown and described. 20

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed my name, in presence of two witnesses, this 22d day of June, 1885.

STEPHEN W. UNDERHILL. \Vitnesses:

JACOB J. STORER, WM. E. STILLINGs. 

